Re: Oleander Hardiness

I remember seeing Nerium growing wild in both
Spain/Portugal where it grew in river basins and
mostly in areas where it could tap into underground
year round water, where it looked really lush and
happy.  By comparison, the ones I saw growing wild in
Saudi Arabia in almost pure rock, but again in wadis,
were much, much smaller sized specimens and showed
signs of dying back to the roots and regrowing
multiple times, most probably in response to much
greater drought stress and variable rains. (It only
rained once the whole winter I spent in Riyadh back in
1999/2000, and this rain actually occured in mid May
as a monsoonal rain that made it all the way into
central Arabia).  Oleander will certainly survive and
grow in cooler coastal influenced medit climates with
no supplemental water, but the bloom season here near
the bay is much abbreviated compared to inland areas
with real summer heat.  Oleanders compare to Crape
Myrtles in my opinion, without heat, you better enjoy
their other features, as the blooms aren't anything to
write home about in comparison to how they can bloom
with heat.

As to the original poster, it seems the question has
as much to do with a surprise at the necessity of a
heating system in a medit climate as whether Oleander
will be hardy in this location.  Obviously if no one
is actually living fulltime in the house during mid
October to mid March, a fireplace may suffice for
heating.  Otherwise, I would suggest that even someone
from Britain will find an unheated house abit too cold
for comfort in this part of Italy.  I had radiant
floor heating installed in my Berkeley home last
summer, and this past winter was the first ever that I
no longer felt cold inside the house!

--- maria guzman <mirror@3rivers.net> wrote:

> tim.longville@btinternet.com wrote:
> > It isn't just winter minimum temperatures, of
> course, which account 
> > for hardiness or lack of. Winter minima here on
> the Solway Firth in 
> > N.W. England rarely dip below -3C and then only
> for a few hours during 
> > an occasional night or two - but I can't grow
> oleander in the ground. 
> > Why? My guess is a combination of (a) summer
> temperatures too low to 
> > harden the old wood thoroughly, (b) my soil
> naturally too rich and 
> > moisture-retentive (I'm too old and idle now to
> play around with 
> > modifying it to any great extent), (c) too much
> year-round 
> > rain. Indeed for years I struggled to get
> oleanders to flower well 
> > even when wintered under glass as a pot plant then
> hauled outside to 
> > flower in summer. I've now given up the struggle.
> And passed my plants 
> > on to a friend with friendlier conditions - steep
> south-facing slope, 
> > well-drained low-nutrient soil - oh, and including
> as a last resort a 
> > vast Victorian orangery. You could almost /hear
> /the poor brutes 
> > saying, 'Yes! At last! /That's /what neriums
> like!'
> >  
> > Tim Longville 
> Consider that Oleander is native to the Arabian
> Peninsula and you'll 
> understand it better.  It grows and blooms
> beautifully in the highway 
> traffic barriers in California, thrives in drought
> and loves heat.  I 
> expect desert nights are cold as well.  It does
> withstand winter rains 
> but good drainage is essential.
> 
> Maria Guzman
> 
>
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